The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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42 THE WOLVERINE ❱ MAY 2024 ❱ MICHIGAN RECRUITING NOTEBOOK the Michigan directory, while Collins has yet to be added. Dunaway played linebacker for Mich- igan from 2016-18 and was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. He was the MLive Detroit Player of the Year on defense as a senior and joined the Wol- verines as a preferred walk-on. Following his playing days, Dunaway spent two years with the program as a coaching intern and graduate assistant. He was most recently an account ex- ecutive for FCB Chicago. This will be his first true recruiting job. Collins has spent the last two years as a personnel and recruiting analyst at Georgia. Prior to joining the Bull- dogs' staff, Collins was a scouting and recruiting assistant for Temple for five months. He then served as a training camp player personnel intern for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Michigan's recruiting department continues to experience some shuf- fling. Former director of recruiting Al- bert Karschnia is now the director of player personnel, while Sam Popper, who previously served as assistant di- rector of recruiting, is expected to slide into Karschnia's former role. Michigan recently hired a new direc- tor of on-campus recruiting in Kayli Johnson. She replaces former Michi- gan director of on-campus recruiting Christina DeRuyter, who will remain with the program in an operations role. Paige Shiver, who worked under De- Ruyter as an on-campus recruiting and operations assistant, is now the execu- tive assistant to the head coach. Michigan now has a general manager in Sean Magee, who will oversee all as- pects of the recruiting and player per- sonnel departments as well as coordi- nate the program's NIL initiatives. He will handle the identification, evaluation and recruitment of prospective student- athletes in conjunction with the head coach and staff and manage the roster of current student-athletes while identify- ing future needs for the program. This is Magee's second stint at Michi- gan. He previously served as associate athletics director for football in four seasons in Ann Arbor. In his role with the Wolverines, Magee was liaison to the athletics director and senior lead- ership team while providing oversight and direction for the football program in the off-field areas including the management of the player personnel department, football operations and the administration of the budget for all football-related activity. He addition- ally served as the program's NFL liaison. More recruiting department addi- tions and restructuring are expected to happen this offseason under new Mich- igan head coach Sherrone Moore, who has made it clear that he will have an aggressive approach on the trail. — EJ Holland KAYLI JOHNSON A 'GAME CHANGER' FOR MICHIGAN RECRUITING The reshuffling of Michigan's coach- ing staff also has trickled down to the recruiting department, where a num- ber of new faces are at the helm this offseason. Head coach Sherrone Moore's signifi- cant commitment to attacking the re- cruiting trail meant expanded roles for some, as well as new hires with an eye toward the future, like Kayli Johnson, who was reported last month as U-M's new director of on-campus recruiting. "She's a very enterprising young lady," Sound Mind Sound Body founder and director Curtis Blackwell told The Wolverine. "She knows how to network, very easy to get along with, very diverse. Grew up in Detroit, went to school in Grosse Pointe. She's the type of young lady who can fit in any environment. "Also, within that, she's kind and really considerate. I think those are the type of skills that you've got to have when you're working recruiting, because there's a lot of hospitality, and she's very good at ac- commodating and looking out for people. I think that's going to be something that's going to make her a big addition to the University of Michigan football staff." Johnson takes over a position that Christina DeRuyter, who has moved into an operations role, was lauded for be- cause of her planning and organizational efforts. Now, Johnson will push forward those endeavors in an impactful manner. "Actions speak louder than words," Blackwell said. "Christina has done a great job. She's A1. Christina is the best. Having her on board to help bring about Kayli just shows the continuity of the program. Bringing somebody like Kayli on board just shows their commitment to the Metro Detroit area, to the state of Michigan, Southeastern Michigan, and really the whole region. They brought in somebody who knows and gets it. "It shows that was a priority in the process in terms of who they could have brought. They could have brought in anybody for this position. But the fact that they brought Kayli in shows that it's important and significant for them to have someone who has those relations. I think that is a big signal of what the re- cruiting department is going to embrace and how they're going to accommodate individuals from this community." Blackwell has gotten to know Johnson very well on a personal level over the years because of his deep ties to her family. "She was always the type of per- son that was going to make sure that she followed up and got the job done," Blackwell said. "She never wanted to leave things incomplete. Kayli was the type of person I would call a perfection- ist because she didn't want to stop a job until it was done the right way. "I remember working with her on dif- ferent projects, and Kayli would always give it all she had. But it was just that athlete, that competitive spirit. Kayli played every sport growing up. She's a competitor on and off the field. Kayli was a multi-sport athlete, pretty high Sean Magee was appointed as Michigan gen- eral manager and associate athletics director for football after spending the 2022-23 sea- sons as chief of staff with the Chicago Bears. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY